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Scrap Section 21: Anti-agency group steps up campaign

The pressure group Generation Rent, which in the past has been highly critical of letting agents and other aspects of the private rental sector, is stepping up its campaign to have Section 21 scrapped.

In a statement it claims that the next government could reduce homelessness cases by 10 per cent by ending what it calls “no-fault evictions.”

It has set out a series of ‘General Election battlegrounds’ - key seats whose constituents, it claims, face the highest risk of being made homeless by “an arbitrary eviction.”

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It claims, for example, that tenants in the London Borough of Havering were most likely to have a landlord selling up or re-letting, “with 39 in every 1000 private renter households being owed a homelessness duty by the council for these reasons in 2018-19.”

Generation Rent says that official data shows that of 263,720 households that faced homelessness in 2018-19, 28,320 - that’s 10.7 per cent - were because their landlord was selling up, reletting the property or responding to a complaint by the tenant about disrepair. 

It claims a further 14,940 or 5.7 per cent of homelessness cases were the result of rent arrears. 

Generation Rent has already announced that it is campaigning alongside other pressure groups to encourage political parties in the General Election to adopt more pro-tenant policies including:

 

- a commitment to end Section 21 evictions and require landlords who evict to sell to pay their tenant’s costs of moving home;

- changes to the benefits system so that recipients are able to keep a roof over their head, including linking local housing allowance to 30% of local rents and ending the delay for receiving Universal Credit; and

- legally binding guidance on the Equality Act that prohibits discrimination against people receiving benefits.

  • jeremy clarke

    The issue runs far deeper than just abolishing S21. Central and local government need to concentrate on the provision of more housing rather than listening to organisations such as GR. After over 30 years in this business I can categorically say that no landlord wants to get rid of good tenants without good reason. S21 is used for many reasons because there is more certainty of possession. If the real reasons for possession were available then I suspect few would actually qualify for S21 but until the alternative works....
    My plea to all of these organisations is to concentrate on working with the PRS rather than trying to destroy it. When it's gone, it's gone!

  • James B

    Foolish people .. they clearly don’t want to factor drop in supply ! Absolutely clueless to the realities

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    They obviously attend the Diane Abbott School of Mathematics. I can guarantee that the minute the abolition of Section 21 looks certain, there will be 4 tenancies getting a S21 and 4 properties for sale.

     
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    • D G
    • 20 November 2019 11:22 AM

    If S21 is abolished it could well see the back of a significant number of landlords from the PRS.
    How about the end of the fixed term really is the end of the fixed term, unless it is agreed by both parties to extend; just a thought.

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